More than just homes lost in Mantoloking

Nov. 7, 2012

Elbert E. 'Rusty' Hustad, 92, evacuated Saturday, may possibly never return to his second generation family home in Mantoloking because Sandy's wrath has deemed it unsafe. / Staff Photo: Michelle Gladden

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MANTOLOKING — From a distance, the home on Ocean Avenue seemed to have fared Sandy’s wrath relatively well. Its grand stature was undiminished, although a hole gaped under a second-floor deck.

This was the home of 92-year-old Elbert E. Husted III., a former director of the borough Office of Emergency Management, borough public safety coordinator and borough councilman who fought six years ago for a beach-replenishment project spanning nine towns from from Manasquan inlet to Island Beach State Park.

Despite numerous trips Husted made to Washington, D.C., to lobby legislators to approve the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan, it never came to fruition.

On Saturday afternoon, Husted, known in the community as “Rusty,” was evacuated from the early 20th-century Nantucket-style house his parents bought during his youth. He likely will never return.

Not because the home has outgrown a man of his age but because it will probably be demolished, his nephew William Bigelow said after he returned to the home Tuesday for the first time since Saturday afternoon.

There on the white front door, a red square tag signified that the home had been deemed unsafe.

“Here it is,” he said pointing to half-buried, splintered planks that resembled thrown pickup sticks.

The couple circled the home’s perimeter, taking close note of every battered beam, missing piling and vanished wall before turning their focus back on gathering any personal belongings.

Back in the front of the home, scattered utensils that have been in the family for generations seemed to spring from the mounds of sand that once lined the beach between Husted’s home and the ocean.

As inspections continue, the number of borough homes determined to have been lost to Hurricane Sandy’s wrath has tripled. Latest figures from the borough engineers’ door-to-door inspections over the past few days have resulted in 139 homes deemed unsafe.

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The Bigelows were among the more than 100 people who lined up early Tuesday morning to get a first look at the sleepy community’s devastation.

Shuttle vans drove two family members per household on the island to assess their homes and gather valuables.

Among them was 86-year-old Connie Pilling, an avid sailor who has taught most on the island the craft.

She returned for the second time since Sandy’s wrath here.The day before, Pilling was in a 15-member group that toured the devastation in the back cab of an Army National Guard truck.

Although her Arnold Street home was deemed safe, as evidenced by the green square tag on her door, Pilling said she will most likely have to relocate from her temporary lodging in Brielle.

“I’m probably going to go to Philadelphia at the end of the week,” she said. “But this is still my home and I will come back.”

Tuesday was the first day residents were permitted back into their homes but officials said they will continue to allow access from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Larry Nelson, who rode out the storm at his in his Downer Avenue home, said by 10:30 p.m. Saturday, as waters began to recede, he thought the worst had past.

“I soon learned it had just begun.” Nelson said of the storm surge that affected almost all the community’s 521 homes.

The seven-man Police Department was evacuated to Tow Boat USA on Mantoloking Road, where they rode out the remainder of the storm.

The next day officials awoke to an unprecedented level of disaster.

Three new inlets were formed, one measuring the size of three football fields, volunteer firefighter Chris Nelson said.

Nelson has since been working to coordinate the efforts to bring residents home.

Mayor George C. Nebel said state and federal officials are helping to keep the town safe from looters who began raiding the affluent homes here almost immediately after the storm.

And while the Bigelows were able to carry out some of Husted’s personal belongings, the most valuable items like his winter clothing, photographs, and collection of LP records are forever lost.

Also lost is the oceanfront home that hosted annual Christmas and summer parties thrown by Husted and his late-wife Thalia-Barbara and attended by almost half of the community’s year-rounders.

“I can’t even think what would have occurred if Rusty had been able to get the Legislature to fund the beach replenishment project here,” said long-time friend Edwin J. O’Malley Jr. “I think it would have made a world of difference.”